The Dancer's Grace
by Farrahtink
Summary: She was a dancer, yet somehow she hadn't been gifted with the coordination to go along with that title. Casey and Derek at Queens. Disaster hits hard and there is only one person who can get this dancer moving again. DASEY
1. Chapter 1

**It's high time I wrote a Dasey fic considering I have read every fic there is out there. Enjoy and review please.**

Casey had always been a dancer, but somehow she lacked the coordination that came with such a title. She shouldn't have been surprised when she toppled over in her dorm room. Her feet had been wet from the shower and she had slipped in her room. Her leg was now at a horrid angle and pain was searing through her body. It was a Friday night, her roommate Michelle was home for the weekend. She was screwed. Her eyes welled up in tears as she dragged herself across he floor and dialed the only number she had a hope of reaching.

Derek was at a party, there was a beer in his hand but it was warm and therefore untouched. He knew there was a blonde drinking up the nerve to come talk to him but he wasn't interested. The music was crap. He felt his phone vibrate against his leg. He put the beer down and walked outside the frat house.

"Hello?"

"Derek," Casey's voice moaned.

"Space case what is it" He was teasing but he heard the heavy breathing.

"Derek my leg, I can't…" Casey let out a sob.

"Where are you?" He asked already moving towards her dorm.

"My room." She cried. "Derek please don't hang up." She sobbed harder now and Derek whispered kind words to her as his legs carried him faster than he thought possible. He was there in five minutes.

He entered the room without a knock and took in the situation as he moved towards her. She was tangled up in a towel, her hair was soaking wet and looking at her leg made him gag but he said nothing. He took her in his arms and wrapped the towel tighter around her. He dialed an ambulance as she sobbed into his shirt. He rocked her as best as he could, given the angle of her body.

When the EMTs started to move her she began to scream. Derek had relinquished his hold on her in understanding of the professionals but he followed her down the halls and to the ambulance. He was stopped when he tried to climb in after Casey.

"Sorry buddy, only family." A young responder told him. Derek's fist balled and the overwhelming urge to deck the boy swallowed him whole.

"I'm her husband you moron," he bit out quickly. The boy put up no further resistance and he was allowed to ride with the most important person in his world. They had her hooked up to all sorts of machines and on a variety of pain killers. She still held tightly to his hand as the technicians began to reset the leg. He was only separated from her when she had to go into the OR.

He took this opportunity to call his parents.

"Derek, there can be no good reason for you calling me at this hour on a Friday night. What do you need?" George asked grumpily. Derek swallowed the ball of vile that was building in his throat.

"Casey's been hurt. We're at the hospital. She's in the Operating Room right now." Derek said, his voice hoarse. He was fighting back a lot of fear for the brunette who was one room over but so far out of reach.

"What happened?" Derek could hear the concern in his father's voice.

"She slipped in her dorm after her shower," Derek let out a small choked giggle. It would have been funny any other time, but not now. Not like this. "I got there as fast as I could." Derek was pleading now trying to make his father see reason.

"Of course, it's not your fault, son." George responded, his father voice in place.

"I'm going to call you when she gets out of surgery." Derek told him. "I'll keep you up to date on what's going on. Can you or Nora call Dennis please? He's not my biggest fan."

"Absolutely. Keep in touch." Click. And then he was left holding onto a phone with no one on the other line.

Derek sat in the waiting room and all he could think about was that if he ever found out who decided that it was a smart idea to hang clocks on the walls of hospitals, well he was going to murder them. The incessant ticking made every second seem impossibly long. It seeped into every thought he had and made closing his eyes for more than five blasted ticks, impossible.

He thought about Casey. He thought about her dancing on the stage of the auditorium. The way her legs could move in impossible ways, how graceful and lithe she was when music played for her. He thought about her laugh and smile and the way she yelled his name. He thought about the party they had gone to last Friday as she danced agilely with a group of girlfriends to some actual good music. He thought about her brunette locks flipping around as she let out a squeal of delight and song recognition. If she were to never dance again. Derek felt like he was going to puke.

"Yo D-Man!" Derek heard on the other end of his phone as he picked up the call. It was his roommate, Luke.

"Hi Luke." Derek responded shortly.

"Where did you sneak off to? I expected to come back to the room and see a sock on the door but I saw nothing, zero, zilch. Where are you?" Luke asked. Derek liked his roommate. Really, he did. He was a nice guy who was on the baseball team and had never once hit on Casey. All those things gave him points in Derek's book, but he was still a college freshmen who wanted more girls than he had hours in the day.

"Casey needed me." Derek quipped, frowning. If only he had been there. If only he had insisted she come out with him tonight.

"You okay?" Luke said quietly. Derek let out a breath of air.

"No." He rasped, his shoulders shaking with the effort to hold back tears.

"Let me know if you need anything. Tell Casey I hope she's okay." Luke responded in understanding. He wasn't one to pry but Derek knew if he needed anyone, he could call him. Again the dial tone greeted him and then a man dressed in scrubs exited from Casey's operating room.

"Mr. Venturi?" The doctor said looking Derek up and down

"Is she okay?" Derek breathed.


	2. Chapter 2

**I do update as much as I can I really hope to get more reviewers. **

The doctor stood among the nurses. He raised an eyebrow at the one closest to him. "What are the odds those two are actually married?"

"I don't know he seems very anxious for her results. She didn't have a ring but then again she had just gotten out of the shower…" Sadie, the nurse on his left said. He nodded.

"They're much too young," quipped Julie the nurse on his right. Alex nodded watching the teenage boy pace.

"He's listed as her emergency contact. Her primary emergency contact, although they have different last names." Alex said looking over Julie's shoulder at Casey McDonald's chart.

"Could just mean she didn't change her's yet. He's cute."

"Yeah, but I'm still not sure if I believe it or not." Alex deliberated.

"It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. He says he's her husband. He is her primary contact, now go tell her." Sadie ordered and walked away quickly. Alex walked towards the younger man.

"Tell me is she okay?" Derek demanded. Alex looked at Derek with his brow furrowed. Derek clenched his fists, his voice broke on the following word. "Please."

"Casey McDonald, your wife?" The doctor queried his eyebrow raised. Derek rolled his eyes and nodded in aggravation.

"Yes! Casey McDonald is my wife so help me God if you won't tell me what the hell is wrong with her-" Derek's voice was raised now.

"Alright, well your," another eyebrow raise "_wife_, broke her leg, badly." The doctor said. Derek felt the overwhelming and unbearable urge to deck him. Hard. "She made it through the surgery, luckily but her entire right leg is in a full cast, she will be wheel chair bound for 6 to 8 weeks and she's going to need physical therapy."

"Will she be able to dance again?" His voice did not sound like his own.

Alex finally had the nerve to look apologetic as he locked his grey eyes with Derek's brown ones. A small head shake from side to side sent Derek running with pure tunnel vision. His head dipped into that porcelain god as it had so many times before. Visions of their many dances together flashed before his eyes. The idea of her not being able to glide around him anymore, not be able to move and sway when her favorite song played, not be able to leap across the stage made him ill, physically ill.

When he reemerged he locked eyes with a nurse in light blue robes. "Are you alright, sir?"

"Can… can I see her?" He begged the woman. Sadie nodded and made a gesture that indicated he should follow her. He walked down those hospital alleys not paying attention to where he was going. The woman in blue with her blonde hair was just a few years older than him, she was pretty too. None of that matter right now. Not one part of it mattered, all that mattered was that he was going to see Casey. Casey who needed a wheel chair. Casey who couldn't walk. Casey who couldn't dance.

They pushed through the doors of the room and there she was, her hair messy but dry now, her face clean of all emotion. He sat down next to her on the edge of her bed. He couldn't look at her leg.

"She should wake up soon, when she does she'll be in a lot of pain, but we've prescribed her some pain killers for when she comes around. She can't be left alone and she won't be discharged until the morning. I recommend you contact her family." Sadie offered and then she left the room. Left him alone with her.

XXXX

"Derek?" A voice whined. It was dark in the room now and Derek had fallen asleep with his head on her bed, his hand holding hers.

"Hey Spacey," he murmured to her.

"Why are you here? What time is it? What's wrong with my leg? What hospital is this? How much is this costing?" Her keener brain had processed she was at the hospital, obviously but Derek was in awe at how quickly her thoughts were moving. He squeezed her hand tightly.

"I'm here because you're here. It's currently around three in the morning. You broke your leg, badly. Very badly. This is the Good Samaritan Hospital of Toronto about fifteen minutes away from the university. This is being covered by our _marital_ health insurance." Derek stressed the word and she narrowed her eyes at him. She smacked the upside his head.

"_WHAT DID YOU DO?"_ She hissed.

"I had to! It was the only way they were going to let me come with you!" He insisted

"You could have just said you were my brother!" Casey argued although the last word felt like bile in her throat. It left a bitter taste but she didn't spend that much time thinking about it.

"They weren't going to let your brother into the ambulance with you. They also were not going to release you to your brother." He paused for a moment. "I'm also already listed as your primary emergency contact." Derek raised an eyebrow at her. She blushed slightly.

"You're here, it just made sense that's all." She looked for another suitable answer, one that was other than 'I wouldn't want anyone else here anyway.' She couldn't find one.

"Yes it does." He agreed. He watched her face scrunch up as a wave of pain washed over her. "Spacey, you have to push the red button if it hurts." Casey shook her head.

"I don't need the pain killers." She insisted but her eyes were wide in pain at the words. His lips thinned.

"Please Case, push the button." Derek pleaded.

"I don't want to go back under."

"I'll be here when you wake up." He promised. Together they took the button and pressed down on it. She began to feel drowsy almost immediately. His chocolate eyes remained locked on her blue ones until the wave of pain killers completely pulled her under.


End file.
